


Fires and Philosophies

by demishock



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, IgNoct, Ignoct Week, M/M, ignoctweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 05:51:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13606905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demishock/pseuds/demishock
Summary: How angry must one be to set the world ablaze?Noctis, Ignis, and the Infernian's wrath.





	Fires and Philosophies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ignoctweek over on tumblr, for the Day 2 prompt: "Burn the World for You".

Ignis woke with a start and knew immediately that something was amiss. It took him all of two seconds to discern what had tripped his mind's alarm: Noctis was absent from his bedroll.

That in itself wasn't _too_ unusual - late night bathroom breaks were never out of the question. But when Noctis failed to reappear after ten minutes (agonizingly timed out by Ignis's cell phone), Ignis put on his glasses and made his own way out of the tent.

A quick survey of the haven showed everything to be where they'd left it when they'd retired for the night. The runes were still lit, and none of their gear appeared to be missing… although everything was coated in a fine layer of ash. Atop the Rock of Ravatogh, it drifted through the air like snow. Ignis tsked softly, dismayed at the mess he'd be needing to clean up later, then returned to his search.

Ignis finally located Noctis perched on the edge of the cliff they'd scaled earlier, overlooking the lava flow. He paused to admire it himself for a moment - _that_ was certainly a sight he'd never seen from the Crown City. Noctis's dark silhouette was stark against the fiery reds and oranges glowing through the cracks in the stone.

"'Everything the light touches is your kingdom,'" Ignis couldn't help quoting as he approached.

He heard the grin in Noctis's voice as he deadpanned, "Wow."

"Shall I fetch Gladio to hoist you up by the armpits over the chasm?"

"Pass. Last thing I need is Prompto selling pictures of _that_ to Vyv."

Ignis chuckled, taking a seat beside him. Then, more seriously, he asked, "Is something troubling you? It's unusual for you to be up this late." Never mind the fact that they'd spent the better part of today scaling the mountain in search of the next of the Royal Tombs, and taking photos for the aforementioned media mogul. By all accounts, Noctis should be exhausted.

Yet here they were.

"Just thinking," Noctis said with a shrug. "Is it true that Ifrit died up here?"

"Difficult to say. There are a number of conflicting sources on the matter. The Cosmogony suggests that he did, indeed, meet his end here, by the Bladekeeper's hand."

"But…?" Noctis prompted. His eyes remained fixed on the glowing pulse of the magma below.

"But, unlike the Glacian, whose remains are visible to all who should pass through Ghorovas Rift across the sea, the Infernian's body has never been discovered."

"Seems like it'd be pretty hard to miss." Noctis sounded skeptical. He nodded to indicate the iridescent spires atop the mountain. "Those could be his horns."

"They could be," Ignis agreed. "But no one has managed to get close enough to the peak to confirm it. The heat at that height is simply too formidable. It is probable that his remains, if they are here somewhere, are beneath the rock, or even beneath the lava itself. Or perhaps he lit his own funeral pyre when he fell, and there _are_ no remains."

"Shouldn't the god of fire be immune to his own element?"

"Who can say?" Ignis said, spreading his hands in surrender. "Perhaps you could ask one of his peers," he added glibly.

Noctis scoffed.

"I can't really understand what they say," he pointed out. "I'm not the Oracle, and I don't have a Messenger handy."

Ignis hummed in acknowledgement. Noctis had told him long ago that he didn't seem to hold any sway over Lady Lunafreya's mythical companions. They came and went as they pleased, and receiving the blessings of two of the Astrals did not seem to have changed that.

One thing was for certain: if the Infernian _was_ up here somewhere, Noctis wouldn't be receiving his blessing.

Noctis laid back, then, so that he was facing the sky, his legs still dangling over the precipice. Ignis tilted his own head back to admire the stars, winking at them through the smoke drifting overhead.

"Even all the way up here, they're still so far away," Noctis murmured.

They sat there quietly for a time. These were the moments that Ignis cherished - the moments when Noctis was thoughtful and inquisitive, like the boy he remembered from years ago, when they were small. The moments when he could almost see Noctis free from the weight of his myriad royal burdens. Such instances were becoming ever fewer and farther between.

Ignis was surprised when his normally reticent charge broke the silence himself.

"Even having seen the power of the gods up close, it's still hard for me to get my head around the idea that Ifrit just… took out his anger on the whole world," Noctis said.

"Mankind took from him his gifts and showed no gratitude for them," Ignis said. He knew the tale by heart. The people of Solheim had used Ifrit's fire to grow and prosper, then turned their noses up at the one responsible for their progress. The Infernian's wrath had destroyed their entire civilization and caused rifts both physical and psychological, in the planet itself and between himself and the other gods.

"If they were gifts then they belonged to the people they were given to," Noctis argued. "You don't give gifts with the expectation of something in return."

Ignis felt a surge of pride at his prince's words.

"Indeed," he agreed.

"And then the fact that it pissed him off so bad that he'd try to destroy _everything_ …" Noctis shook his head. "He didn't just take it out on a few disrespectful people. He took it out on everyone. I don't think I've ever been that mad in my life. Not even…" He paused to collect himself. "Not even when I heard how the treaty turned out."

"The way you were talking in the car, you could have fooled me," Ignis commented, somewhat surprised.

"I wanted to bring down the emperor and his army," Noctis conceded, "but I don't want to take it out on their citizens."

"Quite wise and just of you," Ignis said, pleased to hear it.

Noctis sat up again and turned to face him.

"Do you think you could ever be that mad?"

"Hmm?"

"Like Ifrit was, I mean. Although honestly, I don't think I've ever even seen you get regular-mad," Noctis said, chuckling under his breath.

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised. I don't find the Infernian's fury quite so difficult to fathom," Ignis said.

"You've been mad enough to watch the world burn?"

Ignis thought of Marilith, and his best and only friend in a coma.

He thought of Tenebrae, and the sad shell of a boy who'd returned to Insomnia plagued by nightmares.

He thought of the distress in Noctis's eyes when he heard that their home had been lost to their enemies - of the way he'd fallen to his knees, grieving for his father, after they'd put the wretched daemon down.

"Once or twice," Ignis admitted.

He could see Noctis peering at him in the mountain's firelight.

"Really?"

Ignis frowned, suddenly self-conscious. Would Noctis think less of him if he knew him capable of such extremity? He recalled how Noctis had lashed out at the marshal at the suggestion that King Regis had sacrificed Insomnia to save his son.

Where Noctis had been upset by his father's actions, Ignis had been grateful for them. He still was.

Anything, to save Noctis.

But that was not what his prince - his king, now - wanted to hear.

"I've never acted on it, clearly," he said, attempting to play it off as a joke.

Noctis was still looking at him, a strange, unreadable expression on his face.

"You don't feel that way about _me_ , do you?"

Ignis's heart skipped a beat. Had he been that transparent?

"What way would that be?"

"Mad that I take all your gifts and show you no gratitude."

Ah. Not so transparent, after all, then, if Noctis was taking it that way. It pained Ignis to think that Noctis would mistake the fact that he'd burn the world _for_ him for wanting to burn the world _because of_ him. He'd always been hard on himself that way.

"You do no such thing," Ignis said, hoping to reassure him.

"Please, Specs. When's the last time I did anything for you?"

"You have allowed me to remain by your side all this time."

"That's not a gift."

"It is to me."

Noctis fell silent at Ignis's honest reply, and Ignis wondered, not for the first time, if he had said too much - if he had stepped over that invisible line that had always existed between them. He admired Noctis and his kind heart - a heart that would never allow him to be consumed by the sort of darkness that Ignis sometimes sensed, deep within himself, when fate dealt them blow after crushing blow. Being with Noctis made him a better person.

Anyone - or anything - that tried to take Noctis away from him would certainly rue the day they made the attempt. Ignis would make certain of that.

Hoping to lighten the mood, Ignis got to his feet, dusting himself off.

"I do believe that's enough philosophizing for tonight, lest I feel the urge to set our camp alight should a certain someone fail to wake at a reasonable hour tomorrow…"

Noctis groaned, but stood up as well.

"Yeah, yeah…" he mumbled. "Do that and you'll be hurting Gladio more than you'll be hurting me. No camping gear means more hotel beds."

"Curses; foiled again." Ignis sighed in mock defeat. Inwardly, though, he was glad things seemed to have returned to normal between them.

They made their way back to the tent in silence, Ignis trying his best not to cringe at the thought of dragging yet more ash in with them. They were going to have to fumigate it, at this rate. He hoped that they found the tomb they sought on the morrow, so that they could hasten back down to the hot springs for a proper bath.

Noctis paused with one hand on the tent flap.

"Hey, Ignis?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

Ignis blinked, taken aback.

"Whatever for?"

"I dunno. Everything. I don't say it enough. So… yeah."

And with that, he vanished inside.

Ignis stood still, staring at the space Noctis had occupied a moment prior and marveling at how that single word could make him feel as though nothing else in the world mattered.

Perhaps nothing else did.


End file.
